Adults Make Riskier, More Inconsistent Decisions As They Get Older, Study Finds 225
schliz writes "People aged over 65 make poorer financial decisions and more inconsistent choices than younger individuals with the same IQ, an international research group has found. The study (abstract) had 135 healthy participants aged 12-90 make a series of decisions: for example, choosing between gaining $5 and the chance to win $20 in a lottery. On average, over-65s earned 26-39% less than all other age groups, including adolescents — a finding that could partially explain their susceptibility to problem gambling and scams."
Re:They've got money to burn (Score:4, Informative)
... Might this have something to do with the fact that age discrimination is ripe^W rife in the workplace ...
FTFY
Re:They've got money to burn (Score:4, Informative)
OR, they're more worried about fiscal security at the end of their lives, and fear of things like being shoved in a crappy nursing home and having all their possessions sold off frightens them into taking risks they wouldn't otherwise consider.
The study says fogies prefer less risk.
Compared to other age groups, older adults tended to prefer to lock in guaranteed earnings over gambling on a bigger win.
Now you can turn your theory around to make it about how the poor elderly are fearful of losing what little they have etc. etc., should work just as well for you.
Re:They've got money to burn (Score:5, Informative)
You didn't interpret even TFS correctly: the "earnings" were from the game to which the participants were subjected. It nothing at all to do with their employment prospects.
Sad but True (Score:2, Informative)
My dad is an engineer and has an MBA. He's 79 and been retired for a while. He could be the case study for this article. He has made horrible financial decisions for the past 15+ years despite a career of doing exactly the opposite.
Re:They've got money to burn (Score:4, Informative)
Not all people over 65 are rich, you know; fact is, most are quite the opposite.
Your "soap line" America where the elderly eat dog food is a fiction that exists in the minds of dupes that swallow the lamentations and whining of pressure groups. The US elderly are the wealthiest class of people in the history of the species. They've voted themselves a nice suite of bennies to offset the cost of their fifth wheels, boats and cabins. Today, as in Oct. 1, 2013, they've managed to bridle their grand-kids to fund even more healthcare; a cost they did not pay for their own elders.
Erratic financial decisions are a symptom of excessive disposable wealth.
Dude, i am as pissed about what the baby boomers have done to this nation as any other person not in that generation, but seriously, stop being an asshole. It is not a myth that their are many poor to lower middle class folks (particularly women and minority) folks over 65 that have to worry greatly about how they are going to end their days. I am only 45 and doing decently and I am panicked about it, and my poor mother is doubly so (while my rich asshole father is happily frittering his days away and donating to tea party assholes).
A lot of folks over 65 were just as screwed by the fat cats that made sure their retirement was going swimmingly while passing the cost on to others. There is significant desperation even amongst the baby boomers and for the same reasons. Only they are less able to distract themselves, if only because they are literally less physically able to do so. Why to you think old age alcoholism and suicide are such issues? Is it because they are so rich that the worldly ennui is killing them, or is it maybe that they can no longer deny how fucked they are? appreciate your youthful self confidence while you can, it gets harder as you get older, unless you are one of the lucky rich ones.
Re:They've got money to burn (Score:4, Informative)
Re:They've got money to burn (Score:4, Informative)
The typical U.S. household headed by a person age 65 or older has a net worth 47 times greater [boston.com] than a household headed by someone under 35. This wealth gap is now more than double what it was in 2005 and nearly five times the 10-to-1 disparity a quarter-century ago.
Isn't that as it should be, after working and saving all your life? Net worth includes possessions, house, savings for retirement, etc. Also, take the aging one-percenters (or the 0.1%) out of the numbers (or use median instead of mean) and I bet the disparity growth is a lot flatter. Fundamentally, there's a difference b/t being well off because you worked hard all your life and being well off because you (1) owned the means of productions, (2) bought off legislators, and (3) found a way to exploit others.
Re:They've got money to burn (Score:2, Informative)
Spoken like someone who has never watched a loved one lose their mind to Alzheimer's.
Most people keep their hateful, racist, discriminatory, and otherwise hurtful thoughts to themselves. They do their best to bury those tendencies and be better than the environment they were raised in.
But dementia destroys that filter. People that were normal, nice, average-joe people become hateful, angry, violent monsters. They do and say horrible things. And if you confront them about it, it's like talking to a brick wall. They don't understand what they just said, much less why they shouldn't have said it. They hate everyone that looks, thinks, or even smells different than they do, and you're one of them , so get out of their sight before they chase you down like the animal you are and kill you with this hatchet! (Nevermind the fact that the "hatchet" is a rolled up TV Guide. Or that they're likely to fall flat on their face when they try to take a step, which is why they're strapped into a wheelchair with a seatbelt and an alarm pad under their butt. Or that their hateful rants are the saddest thing you've ever witnessed in your entire life.)
It's great to speak your mind, but when you've lost your mind, you're just speaking.